When Mike Tyson looked terrified.......

Happy Boy

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...........watch below and skip to the 30 seconds between 8.00 and 8.30 of this video.

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Let me preface, all through my childhood I worshiped Tyson and thought he was invincible. Like a lot of kids born in the early 80's, I was a teenager during his post prison comeback and he came in and just re-ignited the aura.

Now, years later, I watch Tyson fans with the same curiosity as I'm sure people watched me. He was far from invincible, and wasn't the phenom I thought he was, but more to the point of this thread, on watching this fight the other day after years (and I stayed up all night in Ireland to watch them on Sky in 1996 and 1997), I realised how utterly terrified he looked against Holyfield, while Holyfield looked like an absolute boss standing there staring him down, and the one thing I thought was unchallengable about him really wasn't in that he wasn't all that intimidating once the mystique was gone.

Quiet and confident is more intimidating than loud and brash, and this staredown exemplifies it more than anything.
 
It's always hard to read into "staredowns". Tyson, before he was brainwashed into megalomania (the first title reign) was always the first to say how scared he was and how normal fear is, when he started talking big is when I started to worry for him and we see what happened with Douglas. Thing is, Tyson didn't seem to learn, we didn't either, we welcomed him back thinking he was again invincible once he got out of prison. I do clearly recall so many Tyson moments from over the years and with the Holyfield fights, you couldn't see a bigger disparity in how confident Tyson looked Pre-Holyfield one, and i was pulling for him to win the rematch but I tell you that I knew it was over when they did the staredown at the weigh in, Tyson looked like a little boy, even more than he does here. Tyson was hardheaded, he should have taken more fights before fighting holyfield again, defeats like the ones he took against douglas and holyfield have mentally destroyed many, many formidable fighters and he sure as hell was not ready for an immediate rematch. Poor tyson, I really do believe he was totally mismanaged, don't think he wasn't a phenom though, he was gifted by nature with more than just about any fighter you'll ever see.
 
did you change the video and the first sentence happy boy ?
 
When Ty got hit with the right hand @11:30....he started thinking of other alternatives rather than getting knocked senseless again.
 
I was a little bit too young to really remember Tyson's pre-prison career, but the hype that was around when he came back to fight McNeely I remember distinctly, being about 10 or 11. That...was awesome.

I agree he didn't look like he usually does in the staredown there against EH.

Compare...
 
if you want to see the difference go look at the staredowns before the first fight, tyson sincerely believed along with the rest of the world that he may seriously hurt Holyfield, not just beat him. No one gave holyfield a chance, lots of sportswriters were calling the fight a joke and who could blame them Holyfield looked atrocious and shopworn. It wasn't too long before this fight that Holyfield was all but banned from boxing because of the "hole in his heart".
 
Tyson just lost all of his killer instinct when he came crashing down from his peak. He had a horrible public marriage, was on anti depressants and lost several years of the last bit of his prime.

Still, I don't think he was scared of anyone. He still fought and beat some reasonably good fighters,even after the Holyfield fights.
 
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Tyson also suffered from what I think of as the Marvin Hagler Syndrome, that's where a guys doesn't really do that much to intimidate an opponent but the press is so keyed into the destroyer image that the public is fed that until they believe it. I remember Hagler said to Reggie Jackson in an interview that "after the first round they don't care who their in with" meaning it becomes just a fight between two men after the prefight jitters. Tyson once said "the best intimidation is to be meek" and he acted like that before he started reading his own press, he never went out of his way to disrespect or intimidate anyone, what he did in the ring was more than enough for that. Once he started saying things like "i'm not afraid of no one" "I'm the baddest man on the planet" as a fan I really started to worry.
edit: in other words he totally forgot his most basic teaching "fear is like fire" and how it's central to the fight.
 
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Well honestly Tyson admitted he was always scared before a fight and would bite his gloves to calm himself
 
Tyson just lost all of his killer instinct when he came crashing down from his peak. He had a horrible public marriage, was on anti depressants and lost several years of the last bit of his prime.

Still, I don't think he was scared of anyone. He still fought and beat some reasonably good fighters,even after the Holyfield fights.

i agree,he wanted to fight holyfield,even though don did everything he could to make sure he didnt,but tyson wanted that fight...his life was really fucked up,so i wouldnt read into him being scared of holyfield,sure it was uncharacteristic staredown but there are plenty of other factors
 
Anyone fears a fight you know will come. It makes you aware of little things. The psyche works like that. The point is how do you overcome these fears, if you can put them into place. Mike obviously could.
 
Maybe. It might explain Tyson's actions in the fight.

He always seemed controlled in the ring (outside the ring, no - but inside - yes). In the earlier part of his career anyways.

And in the Holyfield fight, just bizarre things from him...

1. the ear bite obviously.

2. before the ear-bite - they go to the ropes, and you see Tyson hook Holyfield's arm, and JERK it very heavily - like he was trying to break his arm. Wow. :eek:

3. End of the fight, scrum in the middle of the ring as people pile in. Tyson starts running around ready swing on anything that moves, like an out-of-control mad man.

Just bizarre behaviour. I don't know what the cause of it was. Maybe that was part of it? Don't know. Definitely abnormal in-ring behavior for him.

Perhaps it was the first time he was bullied, and his mind snapped. Or, at least became undisciplined. Wasn't he bullied as a kid - may have brought back those memories in a rush of emotion. Do anything, bite, kill, maim, break Holy's arm, bite his ear off to survive.
 
why would you bite the ear off of someone your afraid of,that doesnt make much sense.then he shoved evander from behind when he walked away. He just was going to make sure something bad would happen to everyone if he had to go down.
 
It's always hard to read into "staredowns". Tyson, before he was brainwashed into megalomania (the first title reign) was always the first to say how scared he was and how normal fear is, when he started talking big is when I started to worry for him and we see what happened with Douglas. Thing is, Tyson didn't seem to learn, we didn't either, we welcomed him back thinking he was again invincible once he got out of prison. I do clearly recall so many Tyson moments from over the years and with the Holyfield fights, you couldn't see a bigger disparity in how confident Tyson looked Pre-Holyfield one, and i was pulling for him to win the rematch but I tell you that I knew it was over when they did the staredown at the weigh in, Tyson looked like a little boy, even more than he does here. Tyson was hardheaded, he should have taken more fights before fighting holyfield again, defeats like the ones he took against douglas and holyfield have mentally destroyed many, many formidable fighters and he sure as hell was not ready for an immediate rematch. Poor tyson, I really do believe he was totally mismanaged, don't think he wasn't a phenom though, he was gifted by nature with more than just about any fighter you'll ever see.

I agree, he always said he was scared and nervous, but didn't he say it was right up until he got into the ring and then he got in the mood and got bullish - "....then it all stop cos I'm the killer then". He usually looked kinda scary, stalking around the ring and looking over ominously. The staredown was never a big part of it back in the day, just his body language and the almost prowling nature of it. Post-prison he used the staredown to try and rattle them, and that was what was so telling about Holyfield II, he looked so rattled and uncomfortable, couldn't hold Holyfield's gaze and was fidgeting and weird.

He was mismanaged, but then again I wonder how he would have done regardless when the era of the massive, skilled HW came. He didn't do great against Smith or Tucker (despite clearly winning), so thinking even prime the likes of Riddick Bowe, Lewis, the Klitschkos may have been hard for him as we never saw him in against this type of HW.
 
Tyson just lost all of his killer instinct when he came crashing down from his peak. He had a horrible public marriage, was on anti depressants and lost several years of the last bit of his prime.

Still, I don't think he was scared of anyone. He still fought and beat some reasonably good fighters,even after the Holyfield fights.

Agreed, post-prison seemed more a case of not having anything else rather than actually wanting to be there, hence he could never really dig deep in fights when he needed to.

I disagree on the second one, Holyfield scared him clearly. Tyson unloaded some big shots on Holyfield flush, and Holyfield took them and came back harder and harder. Psychologically I think that got to him, and it told in his whole body language for their second fight.
 
Maybe. It might explain Tyson's actions in the fight.

He always seemed controlled in the ring (outside the ring, no - but inside - yes). In the earlier part of his career anyways.

And in the Holyfield fight, just bizarre things from him...

1. the ear bite obviously.

2. before the ear-bite - they go to the ropes, and you see Tyson hook Holyfield's arm, and JERK it very heavily - like he was trying to break his arm. Wow. :eek:

3. End of the fight, scrum in the middle of the ring as people pile in. Tyson starts running around ready swing on anything that moves, like an out-of-control mad man.

Just bizarre behaviour. I don't know what the cause of it was. Maybe that was part of it? Don't know. Definitely abnormal in-ring behavior for him.

Perhaps it was the first time he was bullied, and his mind snapped. Or, at least became undisciplined. Wasn't he bullied as a kid - may have brought back those memories in a rush of emotion. Do anything, bite, kill, maim, break Holy's arm, bite his ear off to survive.

I used to get animated and go crazy whenever anyone said this back in my days of Tyson-idolatry, but in hindsight, I think its fair to say he saw the writing on the wall and wanted out before he took another 11 round bullying and beating. Holyfield had mentally beaten him, and both of them knew it.
 
Holyfield fought pretty dirty against Tyson, to be fair.
 
I think David Letterman said it best..."Got disqualified sounds better thank got my ass kicked all over again".
 
Tyson was actually doing better in this fight than he gets credit for too. It was a fairly even fight.
 
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